I have been helping a friend who has been suffering from terminal cancer, although he was totally unaware of this fact. It is a very long story so I can only try and be as brief as possible. He was diagnosed with cancer several years ago and had been having oral chemo treatment for several years. He started to have severe back pain in October and was admitted to hospital. The doctors' all informed him and his family that it was totally unrelated to his cancer. He was reasonably bright and optimistic. Then in January he was transferred to a smaller hospital and was sent once a week for chemo and after he arrived at this hospital he started to have problems with being tired etc. We put this down to perhaps increased morphine etc, but still unaware that it was terminal. The family and he then decided it would be much better to be in a nursing home in the UK and began to arrange ambulance transportation. The information was sent over and consisted of purely two lines stating that he was on one medication and no indepth history. They gave insufficient information on his health and he ended up being rushed to hospital on arrival in the UK and it now appears they were sedating him unnecessarily and also the doctors in France had not given any information that he had problems with low blood pressure and also had not informed them of two further drugs that he was taking. He is now receiving much better treatment in the UK and is speaking coherently and clearly. There has definitely been a lack of care as the family and I suspected and would like to prevent this happening to others, so would like to place an official complaint - so who does the family direct this to?

Hello,What a sad story. There is a complaint mechanism. It is described in the INCa booklet which has been translated into English and is called "Cancer and Welfare Services". The relevant chapter is Ch. 3, the last sections deal with the rights of patients. You can find this document in English and French in the Documents Forum.

Basically, any complaint should first be made to the hospital through the "Commission des relations avec lesusagers et de la qualité de la prise en charge - CRUQPC" (committee for relations with users and quality of care) or simply "CRU". The details of the members of this committee and how to complain should have been given in the Hospital "Welcome" Pack (Livret d'accueil). If not then (at least here in Perpignan) they can be found on the hospital website with a bit of effort. Failing that let me know the hospital and I'll see if I can help.

Then this body, "La commission régionale ou interrégionale de conciliation et d’indemnisation des accidents médicaux,des affections iatrogènes et des infections nosocomiales", handles complaints regionally. Again you should be able to find the nearest comittee through an internet search if it is not available in the hospital "pack".

The rights of a patient are also explained in a document called "Charte de la personne hospitalisée", this is in French and I have added a copy to the Documents Forum (Useful Documents) here, together with a brief summary in English: